Marfy Cape is Finished

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Yesterday I finished the Marfy cape I've been working on. I'm really quite pleased with it. It's a simple design, and yet the finished product has so much style, and the details are so nice, that it was well worth making. I plan to wear it a lot this winter, as it's going to be really warm. The lining, a printed poly moleskin, is very light in weight, although being polyester, it should be warm, but the wool face fabric is heavier than I thought it would be. It's fairly loosely woven of large threads, but the cape is quite heavy. It's a great shape to wear over almost anything. It has a vintage feel to it, yet at the same time it looks very up to date with many of the things we saw on the runway for Fall.

The very large button on the front is ceramic with a rakú finish. It's 2" across, and I thought I'd prefer large covered snaps for the actual closure rather than a buttonhole that large, and I covered both halves of the snaps according to the fabric they were sewn to.

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Here it is with the snaps fastened.

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I used Pam's (Sew Exciting) Pro-Woven Standard, a non-fusible interfacing in the collar and pocket bands. The pockets themselves were sewn to the jacket front by hand after they were constructed. I just love the shape of them! Almost the last thing I did was to resew the pockets by hand, catching the lining so the garment hangs together better when you put your hands in the pockets.

I also hand prick-stitched the edges of the cape. I thought it would look better than understitching, especially when the cape is open. I used a variegated cotton machine quilting thread from YLI called Mango, which matches the colors in the fabric. I like the way it shows, but not aggressively, and in some places almost disappears when the right thread color is on the right fabric color.


The sides are stitched together at the point where the buttons are attached on the front and back. You can see the shape of the cape, and the way it works here.

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I like the collar best standing, but it also folds down.
You can see all the photos here.

One last plus is that I appear to have enough wool left for a straight skirt, my favorite. That should make a fun ensemble this winter.